Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	kindness_n	patience_n	temperance_n	4,558	5	12.0461	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63641	Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Great exemplar of sanctity and holy life according to the christian institution.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Antiquitates apostolicae, or, The lives , acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Lives, acts and martydoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.	1675 (1675)	Wing T287; ESTC R19304	1,245,097	752

fight when we contend earnestly against them and resist them unto bloud if need be that 's being pure as he is pure But besides this positive rejection of all evil and perpetually contesting against sin we must pursue the interests of Vertue and an active Religion 27. And besides this saith S. Peter giving all diligence add to your Faith Vertue to your Vertue Knowlege and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity All this is an evident prosecution of the first design the holiness and righteousness of a whole life the being clear from all spots and blemishes a being pure and so presented unto Christ for upon this the Covenant being founded to this all industries must endeavour and arrive in their proportions For if these things be in you and abound they shall make that you be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and hath forgotten he was purged from his old sins that is he hath lost his Baptismal grace and is put from the first state of his Redemption towards that state which is contradictory and destructive of it 28. Now because all these things are in latitude distance and divisibility and only injoyn a sedulity and great endeavour all that we can dwell upon is this That he who endeavours most is most secure and every degree of negligence is a degree of danger and although in the intermedial condition between the two states of Christianity and a full impiety there is a state of recovery and possibility yet there is danger in every part of it and it increases according as the deflection and irregularity comes to its height position state and finality So that we must give all diligence to work out our Salvation and it would ever be with fear and trembling with fear that we do not lose our innocence and with trembling if we have lost it for fear we never recover or never be accepted But Holiness of life and uninterrupted Sanctity being the condition of our Salvation the ingredient of the Covenant we must proportion our degrees of hope and confidence of Heaven according as we have obtained degrees of Innocence or Perseverance or Restitution Only this As it is certain he is in a state of reprobation who lives unto sin that is whose actions are habitually criminal who gives more of his consent to wickedness than to Vertue so it is also certain he is not in the state of God's favour and Sanctification unless he lives unto righteousness that is whose desires and purposes and endeavours and actions and customs are spiritual holy sanctified and obedient When sin is dead and the spirit is life when the Lusts of the flesh are mortified and the heart is purged from an evil conscience and we abound in a whole Systeme of Christian Vertues when our hearts are right to God and with our affections and our wills we love God and keep his Commandments when we do not only cry Lord Lord but also do his will then Christ dwells in us and we in Christ. Now let all this be taken in the lowest sence that can be imagined all I say which out of Scripture I have transcribed casting away every weight laying aside all malice mortifying the deeds of the flesh crucifying the old man with all his affections and lusts and then having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust besides this adding vertue to vertue till all righteousness be fulfilled in us walking in the light putting on the Lord Jesus purifying our selves as God is pure following peace with all men and holiness resisting unto bloud living in the Spirit being holy in all manner of conversation as he is holy being careful and excellent in all conversation and godliness all this being a pursuit of the first design of Christ's death and our reconcilement can mean no less but that 1. We should have in us no affection to a sin of which we can best judge when we never chuse it and never fall under it but by surprise and never lie under it at all but instantly recover judging our selves severely and 2. That we should chuse Vertue with great freedom of spirit and alacrity and pursue it earnestly integrally and make it the business of our lives and that 3. The effect of this be that sin be crucified in us and the desires to it dead flat and useless and that our desires of serving Christ be quick-spirited active and effective inquisitive for opportunities apprehensive of the offer chearful in the action and persevering in the employment 29. Now let a prudent person imagine what infirmities and over-sights can consist with a state thus described and all that does no violence to the Covenant God pities us and calls us not to an account for what morally cannot or certainly will not with great industry be prevented But whatsoever is inconsistent with this condition is an abatement from our hopes as it is a retiring from our duty and is with greater or less difficulty cured as are the degrees of its distance from that condition which Christ stipulated with us when we became his Disciples For we are just so restored to our state of grace and favour as we are restored to our state of purity and holiness Now this redintegration or renewing of us into the first condition is also called Repentance and is permitted to all persons who still remain within the powers and possibilities of the Covenant that is who are not in a state contradictory to the state and portion of Grace but with a difficulty increased by all circumstances and incidences of the crime and person And this I shall best represent in repeating these considerations 1. Some sins are past hopes of Pardon in this life 2. All that are pardoned are pardoned by parts revocably and imperfectly during this life not quickly nor yet manifestly 3. Repentance contains in it many operations parts and imployments its terms and purpose being to redintegrate our lost condition that is in a second and less perfect sence but as much as in such circumstances we can to verifie our first obligations of innocence and holiness in all manner of conversation and godliness 30. Concerning the first it is too sad a consideration to be too dogmatical and conclusive in it and therefore I shall only recall those expresses of Scripture which may without envy decree the article such as are those of S. Paul that there is a certain sort of men whom he twice describes whom it is impossible to renew again unto Repentance or those of S. Peter such whose latter end is worse than the beginning because after they once had escaped the pollutions of the world they are intangled therein such who as our Blessed Saviour threatens shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come